Did people in Germany protest against higher gas prices by abandoning their cars in the streets? No, that's not true: The photograph supporting the claim shows a traffic jam in Shenzhen in the Guangdong Province of China in 2012, and not a protest in Germany. While gas prices in Germany increased significantly on January 1, 2021, due to a newly…

Are COVID-19 hospital surges just like flu season hospital surges? No, that's not true: The COVID-19 burden is significantly higher. At least 758,261 hospitalizations for COVID-19 have occurred so far in the United States, and that figure is a significant undercount because it does not include data from a number of large states, including California. National figures are not available.…

Does this photo show a caravan headed to DC from California in support of the pro-Trump rally on January 6, 2021? No, that's not true: The photograph on social media showing a long line of cars with American flags traveling on a highway is from October 2020 and shows cars on New York's Long Island, New York, not vehicles traveling…

Does Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have a brother named Ron who is the chief technology officer for the China-based Huawei Corporation? No, that's not true: While Huawei does have a Ron Raffensperger working as the CTO of its subsidiary Huawei Enterprise Storage Solutions, he is not the Georgia sercretary of state's brother. "Secretary Raffensperger does not have a…

Is Joe Biden stepping down as president-elect because of health issues? No, that's not true: This is a fabricated claim. Biden is not stepping down. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) where it was published by @UndergroundPatriot on January 1, 2021, with the caption "Here we go !!!" The Facebook post, which came in the form of…

Did D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser order the shut down of businesses during the week of January 4, 2021, to discourage Trump supporters from gathering in Washington? No, that's not true: In a statement on protests planned for January 6, 2021, Mayor Bowser discouraged D.C. residents from engaging with the protesters and laid out a slew of street closures around the…

Did Donald Trump literally beg the Georgia secretary of state to "invent" 11,000 votes? No, that's not true: The president did not utter "invent" during an hour-long phone call with Brad Raffensperger. To be clear, Trump repeatedly pressured Raffensperger to recalculate the vote in Georgia so that the state would flip in his favor -- he used the words "find"…

Did a "New York Times Election Report" reveal 104,984 Stolen Votes in Georgia and 347,768 in Pennsylvania? And was this report published by a "European paper" because the rest of the world gets different news? No, that's not true: the headline "New York Times Election Report Reveals 104,984 Stolen Votes in Ga, 347,768 in PA" appeared in the Central City…

Did a pro-Trump "operative" uncover thousands of counterfeit November 2020 Fulton County ballots stored in an Atlanta warehouse? No, that's not true: Photos of boxes of ballots showed emergency paper ballots stored in the warehouse as back-ups in the event voting machines failed on election day. Election rules require each county to hold emergency ballots equal to at least 10%…

Does Joe Biden have a plan to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for Americans? No, that's not true: President-elect Biden has repeatedly said that he would not propose making COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory. "I don't think it should be mandatory. I wouldn't demand it to be mandatory," Biden said at a news conference in Wilmington, Delaware on December 3, 2020. There is…

Can all Washington, D.C. residents now register to receive the COVID-19 Vaccine? No, that's not true: Washington, D.C. is in Phase 1A of its vaccination program, where priority is given to health care workers, including those in acute care and specialty care hospitals and those working in long-term care facilities. Priority is also given to residents in skilled nursing facilities…

Did Amazon spray chemicals on their boxes which resulted in sick or dead pets? No, that's not true: Amazon said it does not treat their cardboard shipping boxes with either pesticides or disinfectants. A box industry spokesman said they know of no shippers who spray cardboard boxes with chemicals harmful to pets. A chemist who studied potential risks of cardboard…

Did former Secretary of State and retired Army General Colin Powell urge "the U.S. military to recall [retired Army Lieutenant General] Michael Flynn and put him on military trial for sedition?" No, that's not true: There is no record of Gen. Powell attacking Lt. Genn. Flynn in such a public statement, but Powell's former chief of staff retired U.S. Army…

Did the Federal government unsuccessfully attempt to operate the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada after seizing over a tax debt? No, that's not true: The U.S. government did seize the famed house of ill repute twice, but in each instance it was sold at auction. The Mustang Ranch was seized by the government in a 1990 bankruptcy proceeding in 1990…

Did a registered nurse in Nashville, Tennessee claim in a video that she develop Bell's Palsy three days after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: The name the woman gave in a video making the claim is not listed in the official state database of registered nurses, or in any of the other 49 states, the District of…

Did a Cornell professor say "COVID-19 does not exist and is fictitious?" No, that's not true: A diatribe has gone viral that credits Robert Oswald, a real person and a Cornell professor, as claiming coronavirus is "just another flu strain," and that he believes it is a "COVID hoax," created by "China and the globalists." Oswald did not make these…

Is the certification of the Pennsylvania presidential vote premature and in error, based on an analysis that claims 202,377 more ballots were counted than there were voters who voted? No, that's not true: The analysis, released by a handful of state Republican lawmakers, was based on partial data, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State (DOS). The number of voters…

Did some California counties allow voters to use ImageCast Remote software to mark their mail-in ballots? Yes, that's true, but election officials insist the system is secure from fraud. The ImageCast Remote system allows voters to download a ballot on their personal computing devices, mark that ballot with their choices and then print or save that ballot and send it…

Did National Geographic send a photographer to northern Alaska to capture this photo of the Star of Bethlehem in December of 2020? No, that's not true: This image has been circulating online since at least 2014 and is not credited to National Geographic. It is a screenshot of a 'motion background' stock image titled "North Star Galaxy" available from the…

Was Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) the target of the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville, Tennessee? No, that's not true: Sungard AS has not had a Nashville presence since May 2015. "Accordingly, there was not any impact to Sungard AS by the Nashville explosion," a spokeswoman told Lead Stories. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) published on…